Category: Art & Practice

Creativity in dark times

On 26/02/2025

Walking back to public transit after a trip to the grocery store, I noticed an inscription in a shop window : “Visual arts centre this way”. And my first thought was, “Oh, I should look if they have exhibitions!”

Which is totally in line with this year’s general objective to experience more. But I hadn’t quite realized what this was in answer to until now.

I reflected on how it was still new for me to have that kind of impulse, and then how, of course, it was difficult to be open and creative when you’re dealing with uncertainty, depression, fear, on a personal level. Which is something I’ve known for a good while, but hadn’t yet understood how it applied to me.

As far as the pandemic goes, I was of the very, very lucky ones. As far as I know, there was no loss of employment in the company I work for, and most of us were quickly moved to working from home in March 2020.

Being introverted, and having just then recently discovered how high sensitivity has shaped me, lockdown came almost as a relief. No transit, much fewer people when I went out.

Obviously, again, this was an incredibly privileged position, and I’m also very grateful that it happened to suit me.

But in 2019, there had been a few months of medical leave to sort myself out. And despite my luck work-wise, and how blissfully quiet the world was for my temperament, I wasn’t blind to the distress around me the next year, and in the world at large.

Two family members passed in 2020, though unrelated to the pandemic. 2021 is a blur. 2022 left deep wounds, and the following year was me trying to heal them and deal with the scars. 2024 was difficult is so many, many ways.

Even this year is off to a rocky start.

A couple of years ago, it became apparent that a bad case of perfectionism had robbed me of my passion for drawing. Why start at all if I’m never going to be satisfied with the result? All this time since, I’ve been gently blaming myself for letting it go that far. To be fair, that has been part of the problem.

But somehow I forgot to take into account how difficult the past 5 years have been for me mentally. Not that I dismissed it, nor would I have done so for anyone else in my position. I just… didn’t realize.

Tant qu’il y a de la vie, il y a de l’espoir.

As long as there’s life, there’s hope.

So tonight I will gently apologize to myself for the misplaced blame, and once again practice self-compassion.

What I’ve learned this week

by Laury

On 15/01/2025

In Art & Practice, Reflexions

Already almost halfway through a first month! How are you doing?

One of my general objectives this year is to get more curious. I know, I know, having too many goals at the start of the year is an almost surefire way to ditch all of them. However, being curious is more of a practice and state of mind that can only benefit every sphere of my life.

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back!

So here are a few things I learned this week :

Entity VS incremental theories of intelligence. I’m currently reading The Art Of Learning by Josh Waitzkin and it crystallized what I had generally understood here and there – the way we approach learning early on has a tremendous effect on how we approach a lot of things in life. Very simply put, entity theory refers to attributing success to an innate and fairly unchanging level of ability, whereas incremental, or learning theory refers to associating it to effort and improvement. The former focuses on accomplishments, which can in turn lead to prioritizing the things that come naturally and shy away from what would require growth. The latter encourages practice and is more likely to have failure as a normal part of the learning process. For example, incredibly lucky to understand things quickly, I went through primary and secondary school pretty easily, without having to study all that much. When schooling became more complex and I didn’t understand new material as easily, my performance dropped drastically. Same with drawing – I was told I was talented from a young age, but I never had the drive to practice and get better – I just drew so much it happened on its own. For a while. Once perfectionism also soured the fun of it, art became a source of anxiety when it had once been a core part of my life. I’m only now realizing how crippling it has become, hence my desire to go back to basics, and to try new things, especially if they feel uncomfortable.
It can easily take several days to recover from one bad mental health day. The last part of 2024 was a significant challenge, and being now fairly well-acquainted with grief, I’m aware that it can creep up on you any time it wants, for no particular reason. It did so over a week ago, and while things were already much better the next day, it took almost five more to start feeling like myself again. My therapist said it’s normal! It’s important to let yourself feel the hard stuff too, and to exercise self-compassion through it. That is why I haven’t taken the time to follow another Skillshare class this week.
Speaking of classes, I learned that a one-line drawing, of florals at least, should be started from the bottom, and that my left-handedness is definitely going to be a challenge in taking art classes! Some of the exercises, which I’ve been repeating almost daily, have been challenging because of it – I start them in the right direction but my brain gets confused as I progress. Clearly something I need to practice further!

What have you learned lately that tickled your mind?

A First Class : One-Line Drawings

by Laury

On 07/01/2025

In Art & Practice

Happy Tuesday! We’re almost halfway there 😉

I finally sat down to do a Skillshare class and decided on “One-Line Drawing: Cultivate Calm & Creativity with On-Trend Illustrations”. Could definitely do with some calm!

Obviously, the contents of the course can’t really be shared here, but my final results and my impressions can! Keep in mind, it’s not a review of the course, simply my experience.

***

We are first provided with a worksheet, which I hadn’t done in years. Yes, thinking I was above that. Turns out, I’m really not! I struggled with some of the exercises, though sometimes in part because the teacher is right-handed, like most people out there, and I’m not. Trying to follow her lead on some exercises was a bit of a challenge, from the starting point to the side loops curled, although ultimately rewarding.

Some of the doodles felt oddly nice, as they flowed easily under my pen. And still, I made the conscious decision to gravitate more towards those that gave me trouble. After all, doing the things I’m already comfortable with is no way to progress!

Early on, the teacher recommended that we pay attention to how our body felt as we drew, and it surprised me to realize how tense I was. Focused, yes, but my jaw and my hands especially were tight. Becoming aware of it I could ease that, but as soon as I zoned into the drawing away, tension would return. Perhaps more regular practice might help?

One of the symptoms of that tightness is – and come to think of it, has always been – putting too much pressure on my drawing tool. Attempts to alleviate that consciously doesn’t work very well with being in a state of flow, so I resorted to holding my pencil from the end rather than the tip, which helped the pressure, but left me unhappy with the quality of the result.

Either way, practicing was still actually fun, despite the repetitiveness and occasional annoyance of still not getting a loop or a curve right. Which is why I moved on from trying to attain a satisfactory (to my hopes) result with drawing myosotis,

An attempt at drawing myosotis in a single line

And on to a more lily-like shape :

lily-like flower drawn from a singe line

Having to draw a shape repeatedly, and then all over again when it turned out I wasn’t starting it from the same point as in the actual drawing, was a nice challenge! I will probably practice more in the coming days (and perhaps weeks) as this has been unexpectedly pleasant to do, even as I remained tense. I’d chosen the course because it wasn’t a technique I was familiar with, and to be quite honest, because it was fairly short. But I’m glad I did 🙂

Practice sheets of one-line flower drawings

Have you done anything outside of your comfort zone lately? How did it go?

A gently courageous week to you!